From portrait to icon. The charm of an actress in photography.

The Duse Archive photographic collection is a treasure trove of an inestimable value.

The quantity and variety of the photographic prints in the collection capture all the charm exercised by Eleonora Duse in her long career in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A selection of private portraits and images of Duse posing in stage costumes will enable visitors to explore the world of this extraordinary actress, woman and sublime artist as well as her theatre. On the exhibition itinerary visitors can admire some of the finest photographs of Duse: images that contributed to creating her great reputation and have preserved her memory to the present day.

In addition to a large number of youthful portraits, the works in the exhibition include photographs by the Florentine photographer Mario Nunes Vais, the Spaniard Pau Audouard and some prominent American photographers, such as Aimé Dupont, Joseph Byron, Arnold Genthe and Edward Steichen.

Open to the public since 2011, Eleonora Duse’s Room was created with the aim of providing access for anyone interested in the valuable heritage preserved in the Duse Archive. The original materials in the archive will be exhibited by rotation in a series of temporary exhibitions aimed at exploring one or several aspects of the actress’s life and work.

Created in 1968 with a donation by Eleonora Duse’s granddaughter, Eleonora Ilaria Bullough, later Sister Mary Mark, the archive has gradually been enhanced by significant bequests, including the most recent donation, in June 2015, by the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, New York.

Eleonora Duse’s Room can be visited by booking only.